The Optimal Design of Chemical Reactors

Book excerpt: Mathematics in Science and Engineering, Volume 3: The Optimal Design of Chemical Reactors: A Study in Dynamic Programming covers some of the significant problems of chemical reactor engineering from a unified point of view. This book discusses the principle of optimality in its general baring on chemical processes. Organized into nine chapters, this volume begins with an overview of the whole range of optimal problems in chemical reactor design. This text then provides the fundamental equations for reactions and reactors. Other chapters consider the objective function needed to define a realistic optimal problem and explain separately the main types of chemical reactors and their associated problems. This book discusses as well the three problems with a stochastic element. The final chapter deals with the optimal operation of existing reactors that may be regarded as partial designs in which only some of the variables can be optimally chosen. This book is a valuable resource for chemical engineers.